Something Real
by AWildeRomantic
Summary: SamJack. Jack awakens in a life that isn't quite his own, falls in love with what it gives him of her, but realizes that no alternate can replace Sam.


Chapter 1: A Different Kind of Real

Jack awoke and the first thing he realized was that he most definitely wasn't in his own bed; this one was far too soft and comfortable. The second thing he realized upon opening his eyes was that it was morning, and he wasn't even in his own room. After assessing the situation and realizing that he was in no immediate danger, Jack slowly sat up.

Morning light was filtering through the windows into the tastefully decorated bedroom. The other half of the huge bed Jack was laying in was made, as though someone else had been sleeping there and was already up. And indeed, through the half open door he could hear the faint sounds of someone moving about in a kitchen, clattering dishes and opening and closing cabinets.

Rubbing his eyes, Jack swung his legs out of bed and tried to think. This wasn't any of his teammates' houses, it wasn't Fraiser's house, so…had he gone to a bar and gotten so drunk that he forgot about coming home with some stranger? He wasn't the type of person to do that anymore and it wasn't like he'd had any severe reason to get drunk. No, as far as he could remember he'd finished the debriefing from their latest mission, gone to the store, come home, had dinner and gone to sleep…in his _own_ bed.

Jack opened his eyes and glanced at the bedside table. That definitely was his watch laying there, and next to it…that was definitely a photo of him and….Carter?! He frowned and picked up the photo, staring at it. There he was, sitting on a park bench with Carter, his arm around her shoulders, looking placidly content.

He looked around the room and spotted some clothes that looked like some he owned lying draped over a chair in the corner. He hurried over and pulled the pants and shirt on, trying not to look at the dresser for fear of what he might see there.

Hurrying out of the room he found himself in a hallway facing a flight of stairs. Sounds floated up from downstairs, the low murmur of voices and a laugh that was most definitely Carter's, though he couldn't remember the last time he'd actually heard her laugh like that.

Moving as carefully as he could, Jack started descending the stairs. He happened to glance up as he walked and froze in place. As with many houses there were pictures hanging on the wall of the stairway. These pictures were of two kids, a boy and a girl. In one of them Jack himself was kneeling on the ground between the two kids, his arms around them. In another Carter was sitting next to them on the couch, looking a bit frazzled but happy.

Jack's heart was threatening to pound its way out of his chest, and he did all he could not to just fall down the rest of the stairs. Turning to the left he walked a little ways and found himself standing in the doorway to a kitchen. The two children he'd seen in the photos were sitting at the table eating cereal and Carter was standing by the stove cooking something, though she turned around and grinned when Jack entered.

"Oh hey look who's up. See, I told you Dad wouldn't miss your first day."

The boy glanced up from his cereal. "Hey, Dad."

"Daddy!" The little girl let out a squeal and ran over to Jack, throwing her arms around his legs. She looked up at him. "Daddy, I wanna go to school."

Jack blinked down at her, unsure of how he should respond and still getting over the fact that there was a small girl clinging to his legs. "Er…that's something I don't think I've heard before."

"I wanna go like Jake!"

"No you don't," the boy said, rolling his eyes. "School sucks. And I'm starting high school, which means all the seniors are gonna be beating me up…"

Jack frowned, his whirling mind trying vainly to put together what the hell was going on. Sam turned around and met his gaze, tilting her head to the side as she shut the stove off. "Jack, are you ok?"

Jack shook his head. "No, I'm not ok."

"Rachel, go sit down and finish your breakfast," Sam said to the little girl, who sighed and returned to the table. Sam wiped her hands on a dishtowel and walked over to Jack. "What's wrong?"

"Everything," Jack said, scowling.

Sam's forehead furrowed in a slight frown and she reached up, gently feeling his forehead with the back of her hand. "Do you feel sick? Does your head hurt?"

"No no!" Jack pushed her hand away. "Something is seriously wrong. I'm not supposed to be here."

"What do you mean you're not supposed to be here? Jack, this is your house."

"No it's not!" Jack lowered his voice, not wanting to upset the kids and cause even more chaos. "Carter, this is definitely _not_ my house and last time I checked we didn't live together."

For a moment Sam looked like she was about to start shouting, but she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. "Jack, you were doing fine last night, what's wrong? Janet gave you a clean bill of health for crying out loud…"

"Look, I don't know anything about how health factors into this," Jack said. "All I know is that I'm in the wrong reality or whatever…"

Sam put her hands on his shoulders. "Jack, you're not in the wrong reality, you're just having a relapse or something…Now after the kids go off to school I'll call Janet and she can come check you over, but until then please just try and keep it together…just for Rachel and Jake's sakes."

Jack scowled but nodded. "Yeah I'll try. But that's kinda hard to do when I don't really know what the hell is going on."

"I know," Sam stepped closer to him, leaning in and placing a light kiss on his lips. "You're fine though." She smiled and walked back into the kitchen.

Jack sighed. Putting on his best face he followed Sam into the kitchen, sliding into one of the empty seats. He folded his hands, deciding to try and act as natural as possible, keep under the radar until the time came to assess the situation further. "So, high school. Never cared for it much myself."

Jake snorted. "I know you didn't. But…my school's right near the base, so I found out that they have this junior ROTC program type thing, and I know that they say that if you wanna go to the academy that you should get involved early so…"

Sam turned around, leaning back against the stove and folding her arms over her chest. "So you really want to join the Air Force, Jake? Because you know that's a huge decision."

"I do!" Jake's eyes widened. "I want to be just like you guys and join the Stargate program and save the galaxy…"

"Now Jake…" Sam said, half stern, half bemused. "You know there's a huge waiting list to get into the Stargate program. They only take the best of the best and they get thousands of requests from just about everyone who joins the USAF."

Jack looked up, frowning again. What Sam was saying made it sound as though here the program was public. He looked around and spotted a newspaper lying on the shelf nearby. Reaching out, Jack pulled it to him and scanned the front page; sure enough, there was a big long article about a proposed diplomatic treaty with the Tok'ra concerning the trade of processed weapons for raw naquadah.

"But you guys are my parents." Jake argued, snorting. "Mom, you're like the second in command of the SGC. Why wouldn't they let me in?"

"I'mma be like Aunty Janet!" Rachel proclaimed loudly. "A doc."

Sam chuckled, then glanced at the clock. "Oh, jeeze, Jake, you'd better hurry your bus will be here soon." She grabbed a paper bag off the counter and tossed it to Jake.

"Thanks." Jake caught his lunch and shoved it into his backpack, which he swung over one shoulder as he stood up. "Bye guys."

"Have fun," Jack nodded to Jake.

"Have a good first day, sweetie," Sam said, walking over and wrapping her arms around him.

"Ugh, Mom!" Jake wriggled around, making a face as Sam kissed him on the forehead. "Save that for Rachel. I'll see you all when I get home." With that he turned and hurried out of the house.

Rachel looked up with wide blue eyes. "Momma I wanna go with!"

"You'll start school next year, sweetheart," Sam said, giving her daughter a kiss. "Done eating? Why don't you go change out of your jammies then. I've got off today so maybe we could all go to the park or something."

Rachel nodded excitedly and hopped down off her chair, pattering out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Sam started clearing the breakfast dishes and Jack instinctively got up to help. As they stood shoulder to shoulder rinsing and putting the dishes in the dishwasher Sam would shoot him an odd look every so often. Finally she straightened up.

"You really have no idea where you are, do you?" She bit her lip. "I can see it on your face."

"No I don't," Jack said, shaking his head. "I don't know where I am or how I got here…I have no idea who Jake and Rachel are…"

Sam appeared hurt at that and Jack could have sworn he saw tears well in her eyes. "Damnit!" She said angrily, leaning over and resting her elbows on the counter, pressing her face into her hands. "Janet said you were better!" She looked up at him. "You _were_ better! You were doing fine last night!"

"Look, what happened to me?" Jack cried, unconsciously raising his voice. "You keep going on like something horrible happened to me."

"It did," Sam looked up at him, eyes wide. "Jack, you were captured by Baal a week ago, don't you remember? He did something to you and we're still not sure what."

"That's it!" Jack said excitedly. "That son of a bitch must have done something that caused me to go to another reality…"

"You're not in another reality!" Sam shouted. "Jack, you're in the right reality and there are a million ways I can prove it to you."

"Oh yeah, like what?" Jack folded his arms over his chest.

Sam had to take a few deep breaths before speaking again. "You called me 'Carter' earlier. Obviously in what you think is your reality we're not married."

"Obviously. You're my second in command, how could we be married?"

"Then how do you explain this?" Sam grabbed his left hand and held it up before his face so he could clearly see the gold wedding ring glimmering on his ring finger.

Jack's stomach did a flip-flop. How had he not noticed that? He pulled his hand away from Sam as though her touch hurt him and looked at her with wide eyes. "How…Jesus Christ…"

"Jack, honey," Sam stepped forward, putting her hands on either side of his face. "You're suffering from a delusion, some left over bit of whatever Baal did to you. Obviously he manipulated your memories and made you think you'd lived this whole other life but _it isn't real_ Jack! This is real, I'm real, this is your life…we're married, we have two beautiful children. The only reason you got captured by Baal was because you came with me to the Beta site for that stupid press conference!"

Jack stepped away, turning and leaning on the edge of the sink. Now his mind was really spinning. Was it possible? Was everything that he knew really just an illusion? It was frightening because it could be true. Did crazy people know they were crazy?

And try as he might there was no way to explain the wedding ring.

* * *

Sam sat at her lab table, drinking her third cup of coffee that morning and running over the readouts from the latest test of the new goa'uld weapon they'd recently discovered. The thing was nearly blasted to pieces so she wasn't quite sure of how it worked, exactly, but she thought she'd been able to piece it back together. Now if she could just get it to work

She looked up at the sound of the door opening and saw Jack enter, dressed in civilian clothing. "Oh…hi. You're here early."

"You say that like I'm supposed to be here," Jack said oddly, then sat down on the stool facing Sam. "Funny story. I woke up this morning in my old house. The one I had after I divorced Sarah and before I met you. You weren't there, Rachel and Jake weren't there, the dog wasn't there…you know anything about how that happened?"

Sam stared at him, her mouth hanging open slightly. "Sir…" she began slowly. "Are you ok? Because I have no idea what you're talking about…"

"No I'm not ok! And obviously you're not either, because you just called me 'sir'."

Sam blinked at him. "Er…that's what I always call you…"

"Jesus, Sam, don't do this to me it's not helping!" Jack stood up, running his fingers through his hair. Sam watched him for a moment, then slowly got to her feet as well, inching towards the doorway.

"Sir, I think we should take you down to the infirmary," Sam said quietly. "You're obviously not well…"

Jack snorted. "Oh yes, Janet can run some more of her tests…but isn't today her day off?"

"No…" Sam raised an eyebrow, then stuck her head into the hall. "Airmen, come here and help me escort Colonel O'Neill down to the infirmary."

* * *

Jack sat on the couch, elbows resting on his knees, flipping through a magazine while he waited for Sam to get off the phone with Janet. A black and white dog lay curled near his feet and would occasionally lift her head and look at him, as though she sensed something was wrong with her master. Jack was beginning to feel that sick little feeling in the pit of his stomach that went along with not knowing what was real and what wasn't. Sure, he couldn't complain too much about waking up and suddenly finding out that he's married to Samantha Carter, but thee was no denying how disturbing this whole situation was.

"Daddy?" Rachel walked in, a couple dolls tucked under one arm.

"Hey there," Jack smiled at the little girl weakly, setting the magazine on the table. She was very cute, the spitting image of her mother with wide blue eyes and light blond hair.

"Mommy said you don't feel good." She walked over and stood in front of Jack.

Jack looked up at her and smiled reassuringly. "It's going to be ok, kiddo."

Rachel nodded seriously then walked over and sat down on the floor next to the dog, Jessie, to reach out and pet her fur. Jessie made a contented little woof and shifted her position.

Sam walked in and the three occupants of the room looked up. Walking over to the couch she sat next to Jack and put an arm around his shoulders. "Janet said she'd be over in a couple minutes. It's her day off so she wasn't busy."

"Good," Jack shivered a little under her touch.

"Honey…" Sam gently touched his cheek. "Talk to me…you look so blank…"

Jack turned to face her. Usually being this close to her would set his heart thudding in his chest, a painful reminder of what he wanted and yet couldn't have. But here she was right next to him, trying to comfort him and convince him they were married. "You're telling me that everything I remember is an illusion created by Baal, and yet I know it's real…I was your commanding officer for five years, I lived that life, I know it's real!"

"And I'm not?" Sam's voice wavered. On the floor, Rachel looked up, her little face worried.

Jack sighed. "It's not that. You're just a different kind of real."


End file.
